Detective Chinatown 2 (2018)

This is the current king in the Chinese box office, and is one of four major films that were released on Chinese New Year's. It's a sequel to the surprise box office hit Detective Chinatown back in 2015, and I have to say I didn't enjoy it as much as the first. It was still enjoyable though, and is a perfect holiday movie to watch with friends and family, especially since it has some very distinct Chinese elements. (Yes, I've been on a total Liu Hao Ran kick since NiF2 and have chased down almost all of his projects accordingly).

Set in New York, the story continues to follow the unusual pairing of young genius Qin Feng (played by Liu Hao Ran) and his crazy distant uncle Tang Ren (played by Wang Bao Qiang)  as they try to crack a serial murder case. As you can imagine, it's hijinks and antics galore as they cause mayhem all around NYC. I'm a little disappointed with Tang Ren's characterization in the film - sometimes his shrillness and unneccessary comments get a little too grating. Hopefuly this is something that director/screenwriter Chen Si Chen will consider when he writes the screenplay for the third film - given that actor Wang Bao Qiang is his close friend, I doubt that he wants to short change him.

The director clearly wanted to create more of a "detective world" in the film, and we are introduced to several international detectives that we will surely see again soon. It's also becoming clearer that Qin Feng is the real star of the story as the young prodigy detective, but they also need Tang Ren's contribution to the comedy side, and I feel like that's going to be harder and harder to balance for future installations.

Still, this was a fun movie and if you enjoyed the ridiculousness of the first I think you'll like this one as well.

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Detective Chinatown 2 is not quite as good as the first movie, but it is still laugh out loud funny and entertaining.  It still has the same classic, ridiculous humor as the first one.  Watching the main characters run around New York trying to solve a murder mystery and landing themselves in ridiculous situations is worth watching.  Add in the cast (some old, some new) and some fun music and you've got yourselves a solid good movie.  The actual storyline part of it was a bit weak considering there were a lot of characters and a lot going on, but it was still decent overall. Although this is a sequel, you do not have to watch the first movie to see this one.  You might miss out on a few jokes, but it wont affect your understanding of the plot at all.

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Great mystery part, a bit lacking action-wise and in the comedy

A bit weaker than the first movie, this "Detective Chinatown 2" is imho extremely good in the mystery part, where it manages to be interesting and quite gripping, while it lacks a little action-wise, particularly if compared to the previous movie (I suppose that setting it in New York City didn't help with that - I hope the Tokyo setting will provide better action opportunities in the third chapter!). The comedy is also definitely not as effective as it was in the original movie: Tang Ren's character is often way over the top and sometimes even borderline annoying; also the supporting characters left me with mixed feelings, a few of them are a nice touch (like the cute hacker), but most of the others are little more than extras and don't add much at all.

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Could have been funnier

A somewhat weaker sequel to Detective Chinatown (2015). Some of the scenes are visually hilarious such as with horse-riding on the roads of New York (the poor horse comes to an awful end though).

Like the 2015 movie, there are elements of a whodunit/detective story. Much of it is comedy involving situations that you shouldn't expect to be realistic if you want to enjoy the movie.

The story features a few recurring characters that we see in the Detective Chinatown franchise (including the 2020 series). It is weaker than the 2015 movie though the serial killer premise shows promise at first. This sequel ups the anarchic elements of the first instalment, which can make it really funny. Unfortunately, the comedy isn't always done well. The story relies too much on "stroke of luck" situations to solve the protagonists' problems--this is sometimes funny, sometimes insipid. The means by which the main characters escape from a police lock-up is almost cringe-inducing even for someone with a good appetite for absurd comedic situations. Implausible events are fine if they are fun and hilarious. But if they are simply implausible without being funny, they give the sense that they have been included just to move the plot forward.

Like the 2015 movie, this one features an "extra" revelation after the mystery seems to have been solved. It is clever though, this time round, we may vaguely seeing it coming a tad too early. In the 2015 movie, the extra revelation doesn't seem labored though we may begin to see something extra coming our way quite late in the movie. In contrast, the sequel seems to try a little too hard to show that the extra revelation isn't added as an afterthought. Still, I'm nitpicking a little. This movie isn't meant to be taken so seriously and, in fact, it falters when it starts taking itself too seriously with some pseudo-philosophical moments.

As an aside, a sort of formula or template seems to have emerged from the 2015 movie, and this does not necessarily bode well for the third instalment.

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